NateW

I purchased The Boondock Saints on DVD back in the summer of 2002 solely on word-of-mouth buzz from a few friends without so much as seeing a trailer for it, one of only two times I've done so. Like most guys, I liked it immensely and I too passed on recommendations to other friends. I consider myself a pretty avid film buff, so I couldn't understand why I had never heard of the movie's writer/director Troy Duffy beforehand. After some research I finally found a copy of Overnight, and after watching it I now know the answer to that question. This documentary captures with stunning insight and clarity the story of a man who essentially wasted a once in a lifetime opportunity by way of his incredible arrogance and profanely abusive personality.

If you were to look up "karma" in the dictionary, you would probably find a picture of Duffy with the definition. The story sounds too good to be true, mostly because it is. Here's a guy who was handed quite possibly the most incredible opportunity for a first time movie-maker in the history of Hollywood, and it managed to come crashing down before it even took off. A script for The Boondock Saints personally purchased by none other than Harvey Weinstein, a recording deal for his band and the purchase of the bar he was working in at the time making him a co-owner: all of these things were placed at his feet. Such an overwhelming reversal of fortune seemingly out of nowhere would be hard to handle for anyone, but instead of meeting the deal with gratitude and humility Duffy instead used it as an excuse to further inflate an ego that was apparently immense even before his incredible run of luck. Friends and family were verbally assaulted, complete strangers were subjected to vulgar tirades and members of his band were denied any credit concerning the group's record deal. In one of Overnight's more memorable scenes, The bands co-managers are told by Duffy that they don't deserve any of the band's profits because they were only there by his good graces and hard work. Through an amusing if not catastrophic series of events, the film deal with Miramax fell through, the band's contract was terminated before they even set foot in a studio and no other studio in Hollywood would even consider making The Boondock Saints. The dream, for all intents and purposes, was over.

Duffy eventually made Boondock Saints on half the budget offered by Miramax with a 5 theater theatrical release and the band's album was a resounding flop with less than 700 copies sold. The band's co-managers, once good friends and the co-directors of this film, originally set out to make a documentary of Duffy's rise to stardom but changed their tone drastically once he revealed his true persona. The result is a scathing and often startling glimpse into the downward spiral of a modern day Narcissus undone by his own greed and hubris. Plans for a Boondock Saints II release sometime in 2009 generated mixed buzz on the internet with many people stating the time for a sequel has long passed to have any sort of success. If the sequel does indeed become a hit, it will would be hard to attribute its good fortune to Duffy and perhaps even harder to not harbor jealousy towards him. As Overnight convincingly shows, it wouldn't be well deserved.

Who knew that the best movie of the year and perhaps the biggest cinematic event in a decade could come from the same franchise that once saw George Clooney in a nipple suit? I had pretty high expectations for The Dark Knight after months of hype and anticipation, and not just because of the unfortunate and untimely death of Heath Ledger. As many of my esteemed fellow movie-goers have already stated, the end result was head and shoulders above the considerable buzz surrounding it and is on its way to setting box office records that may not be approached for a long time. Is it possible that a comic book movie can excel as film-making in such an overwhelming fashion that it is actually considered a front runner for...gasp!...Best Picture at the Oscars? I say yes, and if there is justice in this world, it will happen. Even as out-of-touch and elitist as members of the Academy usually are, even they would be hard pressed to overlook the staggering achievement that is The Dark Knight. To call it a comic book movie is an insult to everyone involved; can we really put this in the same class as Fantastic Four or Catwoman? How many other comic book movies have so perfectly mixed action and human drama? Spider-Man 2 comes close, but even it pales in the shadow of TDK. For once, the hype can be believed. If anything, it is insufficient. This could very well stand as one of the definitive films of our generation, and it doesn't take a superhero to see that.

For over two decades, Martin Scorsese captured the essence of the modern mafia and street-wise tough guys so distinctly and vividly that the very idea of anyone else trying to so seemed infeasible. With Mean Streets, Goodfellas, and Casino, Scorsese molded ugly, violent and unrepentant criminals into captivating and even likable characters that are impossible to forget. After going off the beaten path with past efforts Gangs of New York and The Aviator, the man most people (myseslf included) to be our greatest living filmmaker has returned to his roots with The Departed. Simply put, it's the best film of 2006, if not the last several years. From the first words, there's no mistake that Marty has crafted another masterpiece like only he can. Obscenely crackling dialogue, in-your-face blood and brutality and a soundtrack that hits all the right notes are only a few of the familiar fingerprints left in the reels by Mr. Scorsese. It's funny, it's startling, and it's spectacular. How good is it? This could very well be the work that finally gets Marty the Oscar gold that he should've gotten a few times by now. We'll have to wait a few more weeks to see if that happens, but it takes much less time to see that The Departed is a masterpiece of film-making from a director who has made a living out of creating them.